Conventional nonsurgical or emergency retrograde-intubation and tracheostomy techniques are often based on inserting in the trachea a guiding wire which is inserted through the passage of a needle; dilatation devices are made to slide over said wire, in the case of nonsurgical tracheostomies, or the wire is used as a guiding element for difficult intubations where the tracheal passage is not visible or not easily accessible from the mouth.
The guiding wire being used is substantially provided by means of a spring inside which a steel wire is provided which is folded in a U-like shape at one end, so as to provide a highly flexible element which can be inserted in a needle even in a straight configuration and resume immediately thereafter the U-like shape, which is particularly useful during insertion, since it always tends to regain the axial position and, by being extremely flexible, does not damage-the delicate wall of the trachea.
This guiding wire is capable of meeting only some of the technical requirements encountered, since it does not have a sufficient pulling strength and therefore cannot be used whenever it is necessary to perform traction by means of the guiding wire, for example to perform dilation tracheostomies based on the principle of traction, as shown in Italian patent application No. MI 94 A 001043.
Accordingly, when traction has to be applied, it is necessary to use a cable which is constituted by a steel strand, with the consequent additional aid of a rigid tracheoscope, so as to guide the steel cable.